Bernhard Capital Closes $1.25 Billion Acquisition of New Mexico's Largest Gas Utility

Bernhard Capital Partners closed its acquisition of New Mexico Gas Company (NMGC), the state's largest regulated natural gas utility, on August 12, 2026, in a transaction valued at approximately US$1,250 million. The deal, announced in August 2024, received final approval from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) on July 30.

NMGC will retain its name, management team, and Albuquerque headquarters. The utility serves more than 1.3 million customers, roughly 553,000 homes and businesses, across 27 of the state's 33 counties, operating 12,000 miles of pipeline. Emera, which acquired the utility in 2016 as part of the TECO Energy group, will direct net proceeds of between US$650 and US$700 million toward investments in its regulated businesses and debt reduction, Dow Jones Newswires reported via MarketWatch. The utility operates in the state that hosts a portion of the Permian Basin, the producing region whose output feeds cross-border pipelines into Mexico and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The transaction included the assumption of debt, according to Offshore Technology. The NMPRC conditioned its approval on a series of customer commitments: US$22.4 million in bill credits during the year following closing, a base rate freeze through January 2028, approximately 20 new jobs from relocating support functions to New Mexico, US$10 million for economic development, and financial separation of the utility's accounts from those of the fund. Bernhard Capital, which manages more than US$6,000 million in assets, adds NMGC to a portfolio of regulated gas utilities that already includes Delta Gas Company and Magnolia Gas Company. Founder Jeff Jenkins said the firm will support continued investment and safe, reliable, and affordable service.

What comes next: NMGC will operate under private-equity ownership with base rates frozen through January 2028 and a commitment to maintain an equity ratio of at least 50% until the final order in its next general rate case. That milestone will be the test of how new ownership translates into investment and costs for customers.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.